Spending on St. Louis area superintendents has risen 30 percent in 10 years - World News Report
Spending on St. Louis area superintendents has risen 30 percent in 10 years - World News Report
Our Superintendent is the highest paid in Missouri. How outrageous is that?
The Lee’s Summit School District superintendent earned $258,660. Indeed, this was the figure cited in the recent audit of the school district and it was an accurate figure. It is not, however, his current salary. Shortly after we published the post, an astute reader of the blog pointed me to the superintendent’s current contract. This year, he is earning $282,831. Yes, he received a $24,171, or 9.3 percent, raise from last year to this year. Next year, he is due to receive $294,463, and $306,735 the year after that.
Our Superintendent is the highest paid in Missouri. How outrageous is that?
The Lee’s Summit School District superintendent earned $258,660. Indeed, this was the figure cited in the recent audit of the school district and it was an accurate figure. It is not, however, his current salary. Shortly after we published the post, an astute reader of the blog pointed me to the superintendent’s current contract. This year, he is earning $282,831. Yes, he received a $24,171, or 9.3 percent, raise from last year to this year. Next year, he is due to receive $294,463, and $306,735 the year after that.
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced that he will submit a program bill to cap the salaries of school superintendents across the state. The cap would be based upon student enrollment and if approved would save a combined $15 million.
"We must wake up to the new economic reality that government must be more efficient and cut the cost of the bureaucracy. We must streamline government because raising taxes is not an option. Reducing back-office overhead, administration, consultants, and encouraging consolidations are the best targets to find savings," Governor Cuomo said.
The cap would impose salary limits as follows:
Tier | School District Enrollment | Superintendent Salary Cap |
1 | 0 - 250 | $125,000 |
2 | 251-750 | $135,000 |
3 | 751-1,500 | $145,000 |
4 | 1,501-3,000 | $155,000 |
5 | 3,001-6,500 | $165,000 |
6 | 6,501+ | $175,000 |
Before the superintendent of Fox schools agreed to retire, district residents were outraged to hear how much her pay had shot up in the less than 10 years she held that post.
Dianne Critchlow’s salary had nearly doubled since 2005, making it one of the highest for superintendents statewide last year. Had she stayed with the district for 2014-15, she was set to pull in about $267,500. Even when adjusted for inflation, the Fox School District increased spending on the position nearly $98,000, or about 60 percent, during her tenure.
While her salary was steep, other districts in the St. Louis area and across the state also have significantly upped their spending on superintendents in the last decade, according to an analysis of Missouri data by the Post-Dispatch. According to the findings:
• Superintendent salaries at area districts have increased nearly 30 percent in the last 10 years, faster than the rate of inflation. Among 52 districts in the region, the median salary is now $170,000. Ten years ago, it was $131,000, or $165,000 in today’s dollars.
• In the 10 largest school districts in the area, the median pay is now $225,000, up from $157,600 10 years ago, or $198,000 adjusted for inflation.
• Nine superintendents regionally made at least $200,000 last year, four of whom lead districts with fewer than 7,000 students, well above the median salary nationally of $150,000 for similarly sized districts. Tops is $264,025 in Kirkwood, where Tom Williams is the highest-paid superintendent in the region this year and second in the state. Gov. Jay Nixon makes about $134,000.
• Fox had the biggest increase in district spending dollar-wise for that position among six area counties, as well as the city of St. Louis. Lindbergh schools had the second-highest inflation-adjusted increase for the position’s salary at $55,800, or 31 percent, from 2004 to 2014. Warren County was third, with a change of $52,900, or 45 percent.
The spike in some superintendent salaries is partly caused by an evolution in the job itself, market experts say. More accountability and pressure — bringing up scores in a struggling district or maintaining a high-performer status — has increased stress and made the job less attractive.
Amid the rising superintendent salaries, Missouri education officials are nudging school board members to spend more time evaluating superintendents and studying how much students are learning under his or her leadership.
Several districts say they have long done that, though what those evaluations look like and how much weight they have on pay increases varies widely. The Kirkwood School Board, for example, sets goals each year with the superintendent, revisiting them for the evaluation.
But perhaps just as often, superintendents’ pay increases are based at least partly on factors that have little or nothing to do with their job performance.
Some school board members, such as Lindbergh, adjust the superintendent’s salary and write that check partly based on what his or her colleagues in nearby “benchmark” districts make. Others are trying to hold on to an experienced superintendent close to retirement and a lucrative pension. The Post-Dispatch has previously reported on cases where raises of nearly $30,000 or more are needed so that take-home pay exceeds what superintendents would make under the Missouri pension system.
And in some cases, board members make decisions about raises without proof their superintendent’s performance is worth it.
“If you think he or she is worth the money and you’ve got evidence of it, then, absolutely, pay them. We should have a competitive market for school administrators,” said Michael Podgursky, an economics professor at the University of Missouri-Columbia and board member at the Show-Me Institute. “But a competitive market needs two sides — one that is well-informed about performance.”
GREATER SCRUTINY
This year, the state education department has directed districts to revamp their evaluations for teachers. Along with that has come a new model for superintendent evaluations, one that rates the administrators on their ability to lead teachers and boost academic achievement.
“The big focus has been on teacher and principal,” said Paul Katnik, an assistant commissioner in the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. “But an entire district ought to look at how we are increasing learning for kids.”
Other parts of the country also are revisiting superintendent evaluations and salaries.
Critics have argued for more transparency in how much top school chiefs earn in benefits and perks beyond base salaries. In New Jersey, Gov. Chris Christie imposed a controversial cap three years ago that tied pay to the size of the district. Wyoming passed a bill in 2013 that requires superintendent evaluations to include evidence of student learning. In Idaho, legislators determined that growth on student achievement should account for at least 50 percent of the evaluation.
Illinois education officials did not have updated cumulative data on superintendent salaries. In Madison County, base salaries range from $109,360 in Venice to $180,485 in Alton.
In the Kansas City area, two districts had the largest increases by dollar amount in Missouri. Lee’s Summit and Blue Springs each went up in spending by about $100,000 in 10 years, even when factoring in inflation.
Missouri has no state law that caps superintendent salaries. Superintendents typically sign three-year contracts which spell out raises. In the past, the highest paid superintendents were most often leading large districts with enrollments of more than 15,000.
There are outliers. For example, Dan Dozier, the former superintendent of Orchard Farm, a school district of 1,600 students, made $203,057 before he retired in 2013. The new superintendent makes less.
Meanwhile, when considering inflation, Fort Zumwalt district residents are actually spending less than they were 10 years ago on Bernie DuBray, who has been chief there for 30 years. The superintendent of the 17,700-student district made $179,000 last year, compared to what would have been $183,700 in 2004.
His salary stayed nearly flat for three years during the recession. Same with spending on the superintendent in St. Louis Public Schools, where Superintendent Kelvin Adams makes $225,000, and whose salary has not changed since 2008.
These days, affluent, medium-sized districts have started putting higher salaries in contracts for their superintendents because they don’t want to see them move on, said Gary Ray, who has 40 years of experience with his Iowa-based firm that assists school boards with hiring. High-performing districts have the challenge of maintaining that status, and when a superintendent is replaced there is some turmoil and training period, he said.
“A lot (of districts) have become very sharp in their thinking,” said Ray, who helped recruit Williams to Kirkwood. “Everybody’s looking for a rock star. If they’ve got somebody they feel good about, they don’t want to be a steppingstone for another district.”
A TIGHT MARKET
The Lindbergh and Kirkwood districts stand out among others because of size when it comes to superintendent pay increases.
In Lindbergh, School Board President Kathy Kienstra said Simpson is one of the most senior superintendents in the area, and the district’s consistently high standing on state tests justifies his upper-end salary. Even so, the School Board conducts a rigorous evaluation each year, she said.
Simpson, who has been there since 2008, donated his 2010-11 salary increase back to the district.
“Our test scores are through the roof. Our parents are happy,” Kienstra said. “No will complain about a successful company paying a CEO a salary that is commensurate with his outcomes. And we have excellent outcomes.”
The Kirkwood School Board took Ray’s advice on the price tag for an experienced superintendent when they hired Williams, who is in his sixth year leading the district. The market is tight for outstanding superintendents, Ray said. Those are the ones who already have a good job, so districts have to make sure they’ve can offer a competitive salary, he said. Williams came with more than 30 years experience in Iowa, including as superintendent of a district similar in size to Kirkwood.
With a lean administrative staff, Williams is worth the price, said Board President E.J. Miller. He refuses to take a percentage that is out of line with what his staff is getting, he said.
“We absolutely stand by what we pay Tom Williams,” he said. “We’re doing a lot with what we’ve got and paying him accordingly.”
In the case of Fox, School Board members used a formula that partly determined the superintendent’s raise by making it 1.5 times the highest box on the teacher salary schedule. But Critchlow’s pay also increased simply because she stuck with the district.
Residents and taxpayers have blamed board members for rubber-stamping her raises without a thorough evaluation that factored in the district’s academic performance, which has been middle-of-the-pack. Some point out a lack of improvement in the number of students taking college entrance exams. Just 56 percent of Fox graduates took the ACT in 2013, with an average score of 22, which is about the state average.
Critchlow continues to collect a paycheck from the district until she officially retires Oct. 31.
“I think how well students are prepared for college has to weigh in on the superintendent’s pay,” said Kevin Harding, a Fox School District resident. “That got lost somehow. The board did a horrible job.”
Board members already have begun considering a salary for whomever they hire as the new superintendent.
The range is somewhere between $165,00 and $185,000.
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